I have been writing newspaper commentaries for the past several years.
My biggest sense of what is happening is that although the progress of
political reform has been cautious in China, the channels of expression for
"public opinion" have been rapidly growing and expanding. In more and
more domains, "public opinion" has realized itself through its expressions.

Prior history tells us that a rising force often divides society into two
opposing camps with very little room for the moderate middle-of-the-roaders.
At the moment, the growing public desire for "social justice" is basically
divided into the two attitudes of "scornful lip-service" and "lop-sided
approval." Those who hold the first viewpoint are certain government
officials and members of the elite. Because they hold the power and
professional knowledge, they are used to regarding themselves as "saviors"
who are contemptuous of "public opinion." Those who hold the second
viewpoint are represented by current affairs commentators who are popular
with readers and therefore they tend to believe that the majority opinion is
always correct. These people are then imbued with a strong sense of
moral superiority and they believe that they are speaking for the interests
of the majority of the people.

I hold my reservations about these two viewpoints. I believe that
"public opinion" should be classified into two different levels.

The first level is the "desire" that is expressed in the public opinion,
as in the kind of reasonable society that the majority want and their
demands for improvement of the things that are of interest to them.
This portion of "public opinion" is always right. They ought to be
seriously heeded by the rulers as well as society as a whole, and these
demands should be met in time.

But the problems are usually not that simple. This brings us to the
second level: "public opinion" not only expresses certain desires, but they
often include views and means of how to satisfy those desires. Most
people do not have a basic framework of professional knowledge and therefore
this portion of "public opinion" may not be correct, or perhaps they may not
feasible to implement. These wishes should be heeded and valued, but
they should not be carried out so easily. It is most reasonable to
address the discontent of the people. But very often, people approach
the issue purely from their selfish interests and look for the most simple
and direct method to achieve the goal, and that is where problems can occur.

I don't mean to indicate that I am contemptuous of ordinary people.
I only want to say that every person has some kind of specialization based
upon their education and occupation. Ruling the nation requires
specialization. When we go to the hospital for treatment, that is the
job for the doctor and it is unreasonable for us to tell the doctor what to
prescribe for us. There is not much qualitative difference between
solving societal problems and curing diseases, because society and human
physiology are both complex and require professional specialty.

So why is that when it comes to a "societal problem," the sufferers
suddenly become irrational and often demand the government to fill out a
prescription according to their demands? The main reason is that
people do not trust the "society doctors." They believe that those
professionals who hold the power to formulate and implement policies are
either uninformed charlatans or, worst yet, profiteers who have their
personal rather than the patients' interests in mind. At this time,
such feelings are common as well as reasonable. But that does not mean
that the ailments should be treated according to prescriptions written by
the "patients" themselves. The ailments can only treated by increasing
the "supervision" and "encouragement" of the "doctors."

Clearly, nobody knows more about the ailments than the patients
themselves. These first-hand experiences have the effect of increasing the
demand and motivation for societal improvement. But they offer no
substantive help on how society can actually solve the problems in an
effective manner.

There is something else the majority cannot easily detect. In China
today, there are many instances of special interest groups who cleverly
exploit "public opinion" in order to disrupt the free market and gain
improper profits for themselves. We should be able to discern the same
logic in our own daily lives: unethical doctors are those who oblige every
wish of the patient, whereas the ethical doctors are those who listen
carefully to the description of symptoms by the patients and decide
afterwards based upon their own judgment. In dealing with "societal
diseases," we should similarly remember the saying that "good medicine
tastes bitter."

At the same time, the so-called public opinion (which is the will of the
majority) is only appropriate if they affect domains of public affairs but
not into the private domains. For example, the majority presently
think that food prices are too high right now, and they want to see the
prices held constant or even lowered. This is an understandable
desire. But if the majority wants the state to use its administrative
power to force the rice merchants to hold the prices constant, then we must
firmly oppose it. In a market economy, the price of rice is based upon
the operating profits of individual rice merchants. The majority does
not have the right to impose a price that they believe is reasonable and
then compel the rice merchants to sell at that price.

Logically, the "public domains" should be the areas where "public
opinion" are most significant. Unfortunate, those issues are
relatively more complicated and therefore they often elude "public opinion."
Even more regrettably, "public opinion" skips over those things that it
should have kept a close watch on and instead prefers to interfere in
private matters about which it has no right to interfere with. As
Professor Qin Hui has pointed out repeatedly, it is widespread practice
today to "steal money in order to start business deals." Today, some
people are busy trying to prove that "stealing money for investment" is
unavoidable, while other people are busy trying to condemn how "doing
business deals" is destroying the "spirit of humanities." But very few
people are fighting for the citizens' legal right to "conduct business
deals" while also making a just struggle against "stealing money for
capital."

Recently, many reporters have called me to ask which are the major issues
for the upcoming Legco elections. Will it be the inflation? Will
it be double universal suffrage in 2012?

When asked these questions, I usually tell my experience with the 1998
Legco elections. That was the time of the Asian financial crisis.
Some people thought that the people's livelihood issue should be played to
alleviate hardship. But pretty soon, people discovered whenever one
candidate list suggested measures such as relieving real estate taxes,
income taxes, public housing rents and so on at a debate forum, the other
candidates will adopt the same measures at the next forum. Nobody has
exclusive rights to these measures, and everybody (whether they were for or
against Tung Chee-wah or for/against the establishment). So livelihood
issues became moot during those elections.

Therefore, whether an issue can become an election issue does not depend
solely upon its objective importance. Rather, the issue has to be able
to differentiate different candidates. The inflation problem is like
the Asian financial crisis. Everybody (whether they are for or against
the establishment) can use it, unless you raise it to the level of attacking
the evil business people (such as the supermarkets). Otherwise, you
won't be able to use it to differentiate yourself from your opponents.

Of course, double universal suffrage may be one issue that differentiates
those who are for and against the establishment. But the central
government announced a schedule for universal suffrage last December and the
citizens are mostly willing to go along with it. So this will be hard
to heat up. Furthermore, there are between three to eight lists from
the pan-democratic camp in the election districts and this will make it hard
to emerge from these lists.

Therefore, the biggest challenge to the candidates is to emerge from the
various similar candidate lists. In the final stretch, the candidates
will have to cement their votes to make sure that they are not eroded by
"friendly" candidates who share the same issues. Thus, issues such as
local district work, image (such as youth and gender) and even crisis
declarations may be more important. In some of the districts, it may
take less than 10% of the votes to gain the last seat. Therefore, it
may be more important for a candidate can secure a particular stratum,
group, geographical area or demographic, that may be more important than
emphasizing certain grand themes.

...

The candidates reach the voters most broadly through the debate forums on
television and radio. But when an election district has more than 10
candidate lists, it becomes impossible to have a meaningful debate when the
television and radio stations have to adhere strictly to the principle of
equal time for all. The debates will be fragmented and reduced to
either vicious mutual name-calling or pleas for "emergency" votes.

This is how Hong Kong-style elections turned into farce.

[025] The Dahonghou
Mass Incident (07/31/2008) At Tianya forum, this post is being
repeatedly deleted as soon as it gets posted. It gets to the point where
one post was even entitled <I must present the truth ... the more you delete,
the more I post. Large-scale assault/murder at Dahonghu in Changshou
district, Chongqing city
我一定要发表真相。。。越删越发。。重庆长寿大洪湖发生大规模杀...>. If you click
through to that page, you will reach a "this page does not exist" but you can
still read it through the Baidu cache.

In 2004, the Chongqing Dahonghu Water Produce Limited Company sued
citizen Yi Dade for overreaching on his fishing ground. But the
Chongqing City Middle Court Number One ruled that this was an uncertainty
involving the border between the Changshou district of Chongqing city and
Shuiyuan county in Sichuan province. As such, the status quo should be
maintained until as such time as the definition of the border is defined.
Previously, Yi Dade had rented the area for almost twenty years already.
At the time, there was no dissent against the court ruling.

On July 1, 2008, the Chongqing Dahongwu Water Produce Company
unilaterally removed the fishing nets in Yi Dade's territory, causing
several millions yuan in damages. Yi complained to various levels of
government departments without result.

On the morning of July 29, Yi Dade began to cast nets again at the
original location. At 11:20am, the Chongqing Dahongwu Water Produce
Company organized almost 100 crime gangsters armed with machetes, axes,
poles and rocks to attack the Yi family. During the process, Yang
Dade's second son was beaten to death and the four others suffered serious
injuries and are now hospitalized for treatment.

The Chongqing Commercial News witnesses the crime and called the police
at 11:20am. The police should have been there in 15 minutes, but they
only arrived at 12:00 noon. By that time, the perpetrators were long
gone.

A total eclipse of the sun a week before the Beijing Olympics will spook
the superstitious but Chinese authorities have no reason to fear for the
Games, astrologers and feng shui experts say. The phenomenon was once seen
by China's emperors as a portent of disaster, and astrologers predict some
turbulence this time too, probably on the stock market and maybe even on the
streets. However, any trouble will not be powerful enough, they say, to
disrupt the world's largest international sporting event or unduly worry
China's rulers.

Mak Ling-ling, one of the most renowned feng shui and astrology experts
in Hong Kong and author of many books, said the eclipse might bring
small-scale political turbulence and problems to the transport and
communication networks in Beijing during the Games. "Protests and chaos on
the street are very likely but they will not do any permanent harm to the
Chinese authorities," she told AFP.

China may play down any association between the eclipse and the Olympics
to avoid being mocked for being superstitious -- but Mak said it had a
long-time practice of consulting feng shui experts when selecting athletes.
"The national teams give me the date and time of birth of the athletes and
ask me to calculate and identify the ones with a strong will and a real
chance of winning international games," she said.

"No Olympics teams have consulted me about the eclipse but I believe if
the authorities are really worried about it, they would seek help and do
something discreetly without letting outsiders know."

A total solar eclipse total solar eclipse is caused when the moon blots
out the sun by passing directly between it and the earth, and has
traditionally been associated with misfortune.

The latest eclipse is set to traverse half the earth over the course of
two hours in August 1. The path of the moon's umbral shadow, some 10,200
kilometres (6,375 miles) long, will begin in Canada and extend across
northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia and Mongolia, before ending
in northern China. But it will not cross Beijing.

It will make its final stop at sunset in Xi'an, capital of China's
Shaanxi province and site of the famed terracotta army. "In ancient times,
Chinese people believed that a celestial dragon or dog was devouring the sun
during an eclipse," said Peter So, another top feng shui master in Hong
Kong.

"The belief gave rise to their practice of banging drums and pots --
their idea of using loud noises to frighten away the animal," added So, who
hosts TV shows and has a client list numbering many of the city's rich and
famous.

Solar eclipses were regarded as heavenly signs that foretold the future
of emperors. Legends have it that two Chinese astrologers were beheaded in
2300 BC for failing to predict one. In ancient times, western astrologers
also believed eclipses had the power to start and stop wars, solve
scientific puzzles, and trigger earthquakes and floods.

Nowadays, the natural phenomenon is often associated with a volatile
stock market, said So. "It is not surprising. Some people become reluctant
to invest in the market after learning about all the theories on solar
eclipses." He predicted big market swings during the Olympics but said
China's bourses would recover and remain strong until August 2009.

Raymond Lo, another prominent fortune teller and astrologer in Hong Kong,
said the start date for the Olympics -- August 8, 2008 -- on the Chinese
lunar calendar had a tendency to trigger water disasters, which could be
reinforced by the eclipse. "It is the year of the Rat, the month of the
Monkey, and the day of the Dragon. We had the same combination of animals on
the day when the tsunami struck in 2004," he added.

The Chinese zodiac is based on a 12-year cycle, with each year
represented by an animal. Fortune tellers base predictions on the
relationship between the zodiac animals and the characteristics of each.

But a sceptical Cheng Kai-ming, a physics lecturer at Chinese University
of Hong Kong, said any disasters were mere coincidence. "There are so many
natural or man-made disasters every year," he told AFP. "Any total
solar eclipse is bound to occur before, during, or after one of these
events."

There is the official version of the music television video <Beijing
Welcomes You> with the superstars and extravagant production values.

Then there is this alternate version from thirty music students at the
Senior Citizen University, Heze city, Shandong province. The thirty
students range in age between at least 50 and almost 80. This is the
version that is called the "most inexpensive, most spirited and most powerful
music television video ever made in China."

The Olympic song <Beijing Welcomes You> is suddenly red-hot on the
Internet, and the thanks go to the 30 music students at the Senior Citizen
University in Heze City, Shandong province. They did not all sing
flawlessly, but they drew a more enthusiastic response than the big stars.

Many netizens said that they were moved when they watched this video
because this was about real people welcoming the Olympics and expressing their
sincere patriotic sentiments. I cannot deny the enthusiastic patriotism
of these grandparents, uncles and aunts but I would like to contemplate this
affair from another perspective.

As I watched this video, I was reminded of another group of people.
In my hometown, my mother and some friends have formed a drum-dance troupe
which performed dances, singing and drum music around the village, plus other
folk art events. They sing many revolutionary and patriotic songs such
as <The waves of the Hong lake>, <I love my China>, <Entering the New Era> and
so on.

I was home one Labor day. My mother and her team were planning
another performance. Although they stay in a rural village, they know
the importance of political utility and fashion. Therefore, this show
was going to be a report on behalf of the farmers on Labor Day.
Actually, all their previous performances were about reports on behalf of
their farmer friends anyway. On this day, the show took on a seemingly
lofty goal: to praise the laborers. But the show was no different from
the usual ones. These programs including the dances and drum music were
designed to delight the audience as well as the performers. More
importantly, the spectators did not feel that they were being praised -- in
fact, their vocabulary probably did not contain the word 'praise 歌颂.'
But their happiness was genuine and came from the bottom of their hearts.

Of course, the music students frequently displayed banners to celebrate the
Olympics; of course, my mother and her friends frequently chanted slogans for
the laborers. So the passion showed by ordinary people for the Olympics
and the laborers can be readily regarded as "praising" and "eulogizing."
This seems to be a constant refrain in Chinese thinking since ancient times.
If the earthquake zone residents cried when they see Premier Wen Jiabao, it is
because they are moved by the Premier and not because they feel safe when they
see him by their side; if I cry as an Olympic torch bearer, it is because I am
able to participate in this grand festival and not because sand got into my
eye.

We are always trying to distill a grand narrative from the most ordinary
people, but we never pay attention to the most personal feelings of the
ordinary people. I think that my mother and her friends will sing these
Olympic songs too; I may even do a video of them singing about the Olympics or
the motherland. But I prefer to think that they are delighted because
they are doing this for themselves, because they are able to sing and because
they are making a video.

This tip came from a reader who wrote: "When I tried to comment on their
mistake - they refused to show the comment."

Update: The new and improved page is now:

The relevant comments made at the Toronto Star were:

stop being bias

please stop being bias. Those are not chinese police. they are neplease
paramilitary police.

Posted by KMU at 11:25 AM Wednesday, July 30 2008

Don't let press censorship go unnoticed!

First of all I applaud the Toronto Star for keeping us abreast of the
latest developments with regard to Amnesty International's efforts in China.
The topic of my next dim sum in Toronto Chinatown will certainly be press
freedom and human rights. After all, isn't press censorship foremost on the
minds of overseas Chinese in places like Canada and Kathmandhu. Speaking of
Nepal, don't the blue uniforms in that photo beneath the headline kind of
look like those worn by Nepal's police force and not China's? Perhaps that
photo wasn't taken in Lhasa.

Posted by Spelunker at 9:13 AM Wednesday, July 30 2008

[021] Apple Daily's
Olympic Coverage Today (07/30/2008) Recall that the Apple Daily
reporter Norman Choy had been blocked from entering China a couple weeks ago.
He has been able to go to China due to some unreported backroom finagling.

What exactly is it that Apple Daily publishes that scares the Chinese
Communists so much? Here is today's mainland China section in
Apple Daily. This exclusive story is about how hard it is to use
toilets in Beijing.

Once upon a time, it was hard to find a toilet in Beijing. This had
been the worst nightmare for tourists. Since 2001, Beijing has been
planning for the Olympics with a toilet revolution. They built,
renovated and rebuilt more than 5,000 toilets in the city so as to increase
the quantity and hygiene conditions of the toilets. The public toilets
at certain scene sites are even rates (for example, the public toilets at
the Summer Palace were rated as four stars).

Yesterday, our reporter inspected the toilets at the principal Olympic
venues as well as many other spots in Beijing. It was still not easy
to find a toilet. On both sides of the two kilometers strip of Beichun
East Road between Northern Fourth Ring Road and Datun Road, there were four
clusters of the new mobile toilets, but only a small number were operational
and the rest were padlocked. On the south side of the Bird Nest (that
is, the pedestrian walk on the Northern Fourth Ring Middle Road, there were
such mobile toilets even though the pedestrian traffic was happy.

At the public toilet by the Olympic Village mayor's office not far away
from the Bird Nest, it goes without say that watermarks, cigarette butts and
sputum were abundantly present but the stench also reached into the heavens.
It is unbelievable that such an unhygienic toilet could exist so close to
the Olympic core area.

In the old city district within the Second Ring Road, the squat toilets
which used to be just one long row with unobstructed views are now separated
by partitions. There are also handwashing basins which are cleaned.
Unfortunately, these old-style toilets cannot be flushed independently and
the ventilation is bad. Therefore, many people were smoking
continuously to cover the smell.

As for the star-rated hotels in the city, tourists used to be able to use
the restrooms. Now, the guests have to go past airport style
inspection at the lobby and some hotels even require the registration of
identification papers.

As for the toilets near Tiananmen Square, all 27 are squat-style with one
being the western style reserved for handicapped pesons.

In the first stage, the initiator describes the search target as well as
the reasons. The more interesting the material, the greater the number
of participants. The most attractive targets have been people like
"marriage crashers," "animal torturers," and so on. Those targets were
successfully located because the general public find their behavior morally
reprehensible.

In the second stage, the Internet meets reality. People sieve
through the Internet information to track down the traces left on the
Internet and merge it with real-life information. Step by step, the
target is approached until located. But if this is a crafty person who
has disclosed nothing whatsoever on the Internet or if this is a person who
does not use the Internet, then there may be nothing to do.

In the third stage, the Internet person has become a person in real life
with telephone number, home address, work information and everything else
made public. The person is now totally exposed and transparent without
any chance to fight back. Anyone can harass his family and work
department.

Thus, while some netizens condemned Runner Fan, other netizens used the
"human flesh search engines" to locate his wife and daughter and harassed
them. This turned a discussion between Runner Fan and netizens into
thuggish violence against which Runner Fan was totally defenseless. In
turn, this created public sympathy and support for Runner Fan as a result.

Why do "human flesh search engines" always begin with a moral judgment
and then end up in immoral chaos? That is because the "human flesh
search engine" is a disordered, unprincipled and undisciplined act of
anarchy.

The Internet is a virtual space. When people exchange ideas and
debate, they deal with thoughts and viewpoints. People can can accept
or ignore what was said, so verbal abuse does not cause great harm. At
worst, people ignore the comments or even stop using the Internet. But
when the moral condemnation travels from the virtual space into real life,
this becomes a face-to-face argument which can easily switch from a debate
of the issues to personal attacks.

When the personal information becomes public, what happens next is beyond
the control of any single person. Anyone can jump in in the name of
justice and morality and impose vicious punishments. This is a private
form of punishment that is immoral and possibly illegal in itself.

"Human flesh search engines" should not be allowed to proliferate because
the result would be the formation of "Red Guards" in the Internet era.
A moral storm

On July 21, a netizen posted at NetEase a set of four photographs taken
inside a bus. The photos showed an old man standing and a person in
uniform sitting down and totally oblivious to the existence of the old man.
The netizen said that he took the photos because he was outraged by what
occurred immediately before. Someone had gotten up to yield the seat
to the old man, but the uniformed person grabbed the seat quickly.
Netizens are now calling for the "human flesh search engines" to locate the
"seat-hogging policeman."

The usual number of sarcastic comments appeared:
- Let the policeman sit because he would be beating people otherwise
- The policeman should be applauded for being environmentally friendly
because he is taking a bus instead of driving a car
- The policeman deserves to sit because he had just worked very hard to put
away a small group of people with ulterior motives

Immediately, the 50 cent gang went to work with all sorts of chaff:
- Nowadays many security guards wear uniforms that look like police ones, so
who can tell?
- There is no photographic evidence that he seized the seat; the only
evidence is that he did not yield his seat. This is very different.
- When you are that old, you should not be going out, especially taking
crowded public buses. You children should have given you the money to
take a taxi.
- This is clearly a fake story because who has ever seen a policeman with
his trouser legs pulled up for filming?

[018] Andrew To's
Banners (07/28/2008) (Ming
Pao) Hong Kong League of Social Democrats vice-chairman Andrew To
wanted to have some banners made. The banners contain a photo of himself
plus the word: "For the sake of justice, I am willing to work hard. Andrew
To." His contractor decided to have a Shenzhen print shop do the job in
order to save money. Yesterday, Andrew To learned from his contractor that
the print shop said that the banners have been held by some unidentified
government department indefinitely. Andrew To said: "Is the withholding of
the banners another sign that the central government is interfering with the
elections? We protest strongly about this affair."

[017] They Sign Books (07/27/2008) The Hong Kong Book Fair is an
international event with many overseas visitors converging for meetings with
people that they would not get to know. Now I am not a famous writer and I
have never published any books. But I do have some materials that people
come from all over the world to look at. Here are my visitors today.
Now they are famous writers and they have written many books. I happened
to own some of those books and I got their autographs.

[016] Google News Classification
(07/26/2008) I tried to search for news stories on "Beijing"+"Hong
Kong"+"reporter" and I get the following results. Is this a comment on the
kind of journalism practiced by Hong Kong reporters?

I make this comment because of the incident between Li Yapeng and Hong Kong
journalists at the Bangkok airport.

TVB (Hong Kong), in Cantonese

The public is not completely siding with the Hong Kong journalists on this.
According to an Internet survey at Global Times (see ifeng.com), more
than 90% of netizens that they can either "understand how Li Yapeng wants to
protect his daughter" or "seriously despise the reporter."

Li Yapeng and his singer wife, Faye Wong,
arrived in Bangkok with their two daughters on Wednesday for a transfer
flight back to China, after attending Tony Leung and Carina Lau's wedding
ceremony in Bhutan earlier this week.

There, the family was quickly surrounded by
throngs of Hong Kong entertainment reporters waiting there for glimpses of
celebrity guests from the wedding. A male photographer rushed over to
two-year-old Li Yan, the younger daughter who has been protected from media
exposure, where he was attacked by her angry father.

Li Yapeng punched another male reporter in
the chest and caused a female photographer's camera to drop twice, according
to reports.

"Haven't you seen him pestering my kid? The
camera almost touched her face! You can shoot me, but keep away from my kid!
Not just this time - next time I'll react the same way. I'll protect my kid
by any means," Li told a TV reporter in footage of the incident.

The photographer later reported the
incident to the local police, who investigated Li Yapeng Wednesday night.

Upon his arrival in Beijing on Thursday
afternoon, Li Yapeng said, "(The case) is settled, otherwise we wouldn't be
here. I hope the media doesn't try to hurt my kids in the future."
Faye Wong did not offer a comment.

Faye Wong married Li Yapeng in 2005 and
gave birth to Li Yan in 2006. The girl was born with a cleft lip and has had
several surgeries to correct it. Shortly after her birth, the celebrity
couple founded the Smile Angel Foundation to help children with cleft lips
whose families cannot afford treatment.

The antipathy towards the reporters is that this incident is being
construed as an intentional provocation to create a story. The
Global Times/Global
Times transcript is:

Yesterday, <Beijing News> published an interview with former Associated
Press Beijing-based reporter Liu Heungshing. The story appeared in
page C15, and belongs to the series about thirty years of reform. The
title was <I used photographs to record the path that China went through>.
Next to the story is a photograph that Liu took during the June 4th incident
in 1989. The photo showed a couple of wounded civilians being spirited
away in a tricycle cart. Reportedly, the authorities recalled all
copies of <Beijing News> after they realized what had happened. The
story has also been removed from the online edition of <Beijing News>.
It is expected that many people at <Beijing News> including the reporter,
the page editor and senior editors will be punished.

<The Wounded>

In the interview, Liu Heungshing expressed his views about what Chinese
media went through over the last 30 years. He made no mention about
anything related to the June 4th incident in 1989. As a pioneer
foreign correspondent, Liu said: "At the time, there were many restrictions.
The Chinese people were very cautious about what they say in front of the
foreign media. When I photographed people, I find that they also
photographed me."

Liu said that while the American media can criticize political parties,
they keep the national interest in mind. The so-called "freedom"
refers to allowing all sorts of ideas and thoughts to be presented in the
media, which means that both mainstream and marginal ideas co-exist.
The bottom line is that marginalized ideas can exist, but they will not be
able to overthrow the mainstream.

[014] They Write Books
(07/24/2008) Today, I went to the Hong Kong Book Fair. Why
walk around for miles and miles at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition
Centre? Because I want to buy the books of the people that I am personally
acquainted with. I can only be counted as a recent 'migrant' to Hong Kong
and I really do not know many people. If you look at the following list,
it would create the impression that my social circle is limited to bloggers,
media people and culturati. Actually, I know other people but they don't
write books.

(SCMP)
Democrat called a traitor for going it alone. By Ambrose Leung and
Albert Wong. July 24, 2008.

A veteran Democratic Party member who quit the
party yesterday to run as an independent in September's Legislative Council
election has been condemned as a traitor. His rebellion could dilute the
party's support on Hong Kong Island. But Lai Chi-keong, who had failed
to receive his party's support to stand, said there was no hidden agenda nor
a vendetta against the party. He said he just wanted to serve the community.

"In fact, it was my constituents who forced me to stand for election.
They asked me, `have you got the local residents' interest at heart, or just
your own party's interest?'" he said after making the announcement. Mr
Lai was supported by about 20 residents as he handed in his nomination form.
He said some members of the Democratic Party also supported his move but it
would not be appropriate to name them.

Mr Lai's move sent shockwaves through the party leadership, which is to
hold an emergency meeting tonight to discuss the implications for the
party's ticket, headed by Central and Western District councillor Kam
Nai-wai. Party chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan condemned Mr Lai, saying he had
split the party. "He has betrayed his party, betrayed the Hong Kong
Island supporters and betrayed his own belief in democracy." Yeung
Sum, Mr Kam's running mate, said: "Nobody who supports the Democratic Party
will vote for him because he is not a Democrat."

With Mr Kam's campaign already in danger because of the various lists
fielded by other pan-democrats in the six-seat island constituency, Mr Lai's
entry to the race will draw critical support, particularly in Eastern
District - a Democrat stronghold. Civic Party leader Audrey Eu
Yuet-mee said the more pan-democrats there were in the race, the less chance
any of them would have of winning under the proportional representation
system.

Political scientist Ivan Choy Chi-keung queried Mr Lai's motives, saying
that he had no chance of winning.

Within the Democratic Party, the word was that Lai Chi-keong is being
backed by pro-Beijing elements. A certain member of the Hong Kong
Island branch of the Democratic Party said privately that Lai Chi-keong's
actions showed that Kam Nai-wai has not been able to win the support of the
various factions and it is still an unknown whether the other local "lords"
will support him wholeheartedly at election time.

Certain Democratic Party insiders are circulating the word that Lai is
being supported by some pro-Beijing local people to the tune of several
hundred thousand dollars for his election fund. The purpose is to
dilute the votes for Kam Nai-wai so that the Democratic Party will not win a
single seat on Hong Kong Island. "These pro-Beijing people know that
Kam Nai-wai can only be contesting for the fifth or sixth seat. If Lai
grabs 1% or 2% of the votes from Kam, then the latter may lose."

But Lai Chi-Keong pointed out that these rumors are being spread to smear
him. Since June 4th, 1989, Lai has been a member of the Alliance To
Support Democratic Movements in China. "If the central government even
wants to buy people like me, then everybody in the Democratic Party should
be able to travel to China a long time ago." He admits that certain
local residents has said that they would raise money for him, although he
declined to disclose the sums. He said that these local residents are
not pro-Beijing people.

[012] Tout Est Prêt
(07/23/2008) (Deutsche Welle via Wenxue
City) The renowed French stage director Ariane Mnouchkine has shot
three videos related to the Beijing Olympics. In the first video, a
Tibetan lama sits on the track and a bunch of police officers and "goons in
blue/white track suits" rush over to remove thim. In the second video, an
European diver loses his concentration when he spots a human rights protestor
removed by the police. In the third video, the backs of French president
Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife are shown when a protestor waving a Free Tibet is
shot right in front and blood is splattered on the arm of Mrs. Sarkozy.
The theme is

Satisfaction rate for the job performance of President Ma Ying-jeou:38% satisfied
40% dissatisfied

If you can vote again in the presidential election, whom would you vote
for?54% Ma Ying-jeou
34% Frank Hsieh

[010] Do Not Carry
This Bag (07/23/2008) (DWnews)
The Kunming public security bureau is offering a reward of 300,000 RMB for
information leading to the solving of the bus explosions on July 21.
Specfically, it was noted that the bomb placed on the second bus (license plate
Yun AS 1822) was carried in a tea company's bag (or something similar).

[009] China By The
Numbers (07/23/2008) (Pew
Global Attitudes Survey in China) (3,212 adults in 8 major cities as
well as medium-sized towns and rural areas with coverage of 42% of the country's
population were interviewed via personal face-to-face interviews on March
28-April 21, 2008).

Q2. Overall, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in
our country today?
Q4. Now thinking about our economic situation, how would you describe the
current economic situation in China -- is it very good, somewhat good, somewhat
bad or very bad?

The chart below shows the Pew Global Attitudes Survey responses in 24 countries
(including China). Also, in 2002, the two satisfaction rates were only 48%
and 52% respectively.

Every time that a natural or manmade disaster strikes, one is led to the
following song about not wanting to be born Chinese: "Do not be a child in
Kelamay City, Do not a child in Shalan town, Do not be a child of Chengdu, Do
not be a child in Henan province, When they get hungry they'll eat you ..."
(see, for example,
Do Not Be A Chinese Child)

《中国孩子》

词曲：周云蓬

不要做克拉玛依的孩子
火烧痛皮肤让亲娘心焦
不要做沙兰镇的孩子
水底下漆黑他睡不着
不要做成都人的孩子
吸毒的妈妈七天七夜不回家

(呀，呀呀呀
呀，呀呀呀
呀，呀呀呀……）

不要做河南人的孩子
艾滋病在血液里哈哈的笑
不要做山西人的孩子
爸爸变成了一筐煤你别再想见到他

（呀，呀呀呀
呀，呀呀呀
呀，呀呀呀……）

不要做克拉玛依的孩子
不要做沙兰镇的孩子
不要做成都人的孩子
不要做河南人的孩子

不要做中国人的孩子
饿极了他们会把你吃掉
还不如旷野中的老山羊
为保护小羊而目露凶光

不要做中国人的孩子
爸爸妈妈都是些怯懦的人
为证明他们的铁石心肠
死到临头让领导先走

This leads to Q35b below: Where would you rather be, if not in China?

But if you go to the United States, will you find yourself among the 23%
who think the country is going in the right direction and the 20% who think
that the economic situation is good?

Q1. Do you think that inflation relief package proposed by the
Chief Executive is helpful to reducing the pressures of inflation on you?12%: A lot of help
12%: Of some help
42%: Of a little help
30%: No help
4%: No opinion

Q2. Which of the inflation relief measures from the government is the
most helpful to you? 6%: MTR student discounts
23%: Payment of public housing rent
6%: School subsidies
5%: Senior citizen subsidies
4%: Subsidies for welfare recipients and senior citizens
5%: Domestic helper tax relief for two years
39%: Electricity subsidies
3%: More short-term food aid services
5%: Freezing of government fees
2%: Providing information on item prices
2%: No opinion

Q3. In the upcoming October governance report, which would you like to
see the Chief Executive bring out in order to relief the pressures of
inflation on the citizens?30%: Cash payment to everybody
5%: One-time-only subsidy
16%: Tax reduction
16%: Increase subsidies to low-income people
23%: Accelerate economic development
6%: Other
3%: No opinion

Q4. How much impact do the rising food prices have on you?55%: A lot of impact
32%: Some impact
10%: A small impact
1%: No impact
2%: No opinion

Q5. How much impact do the rising prices for electricity have on you?40%: A lot of impact
37%: Some impact
19%: A small impact
1%: No impact
3%: No opinion

Q6. How much impact do the rising energy costs have on you?38%: A lot of impact
35%: Some impact
22%: A small impact
2%: No impact
3%: No opinion

Q7. How much impact do the rising transportation costs have on
you?45%: A lot of impact
33%: Some impact
19%: A small impact
2%: No impact
1%: No opinion

Q8. How much impact do the rising housing costs have on you?38%: A lot of impact
25%: Some impact
24%: A small impact
9%: No impact
4%: No opinion

Q9. How do you think the pace of inflation the second half of 2008 will
compare with the first half?48%: Even higher inflation
38%: The same rate
10%: Slower inflation
4%: No opinion

Q10. Which method will you use most frequently to cope with inflation? 9%: Decrease outside travel
24%: Decrease leisure activities
21%: Decrease dining out
13%: Pay attention to prices
22%: Purchase more items on sale
5%: Invest to increase wealth
3%: Other
3%: No opinion

[006] How Much
Goodwill Does HK$ 11 billion Buy? (07/23/2008) (Ming
Pao;
HKU POP) (778 persons were interviewed on July 14-15, and 403 persons
were interviewed on July 16) On July 16, Hong Kong SAR Chief Executive
Donald Tsang announced a HK$11 billion inflation relief package.

The above chart shows the trend of the ratings for Hong Kong SAR CE
Donald Tsang, where respondents are asked to provide a rating (that is, a
number between 0 and 100). It is customary in Hong Kong schools
to regard 60 or above as the passing grade.

As for the confidence question, Tsang received 43% vote of confidence on
July 14-15 and 48% on July 16 for a +5% rise (his vote of no confidence went
from 34% to 30% for a 4% drop).

As for the satisfaction rate of the performance of the Hong Kong Special
Administration Region Government, the satisfaction rate went from 28% on
July 14-15 to 35% on July 16 for a +7% increase (the dissatisfaction rate
went from 28% to 20% for a 8% drop).

Q1. Who was the perpetrator? When the explosion occurred,
people asked whether this was a terrorist attack linked to the upcoming
Beijing Olympics? Was this carried out by Tibet and Xinjiang seperatists?
A. According to Du Min, head of the Kunming public security bureau and the
city's vice-mayor, the evidence gathered at this point did not indicate that
this was a terrorist attack. As the case investigation progresses, there
should be a clear indication.
[Note: The existing evidence does not support any theory of a terrorist attack
by Tibet separatists, Xinjiang separatists, rubber farmers or anyone else.
But this is not the same as saying that the existing evidence establishes that
this was not a terrorist attack by any of the aforementioned groups.
Thus, it is inaccurate for the South China Morning Post to present the
headline: "Explosions
'not linked to terror or Games.'" The text of the SCMP story
says: ... "We're still carrying out investigations,
[but] at the moment, this case has not been linked to Tibet separatists or any
particular person. It's also not linked to the Beijing Olympics," said Mr Du
... ]

Q2. Why was the route 54 bus targeted?
This is the hottest discussion topic at the Internet forums. In 2008,
the many major incidents and disasters are believed to be related to unlucky
numbers. In this case, the number '54' (wusi) sounds like 'I die'
(我死 wosi). Therefore,
some netizens think that this was an unlucky number chosen by the criminal.A. The public security bureau replies that the decision to target the
route 54 bus (and not some other route) will be one of their major leads in
the case.

Q3. Where did the nitroamine explosives come
from? Yunnan is one of the Chinese provinces with the richest mining
resources. Nitroamine is used at many mines. In recent years,
there have been many attacks with explosives over mining disputes in Yunnan.
Some people speculate that the administration/management of the explosives had
been sloppy at some mine and the criminal was able to procure the nitroamine.
Alternately, this was another case of mining dispute.A. The public security bureau is analyzing the nitroamine used in this
case and they will identify the producer and the distributor as quickly as
possible.

Q4. Was the second explosion avoidable?
Some netizens believe that the two explosions were almost one hour apart, so
that the second explosion was totally unavoidable. They question why the
authorities had not ordered all buses to stop running after the first
explosion.A. After the first bus explosion, the Kunming public security bureau set
off its emergency plan. Police were sent to investigate at the scene and
the bus companies were noticed to take precautionary measures. However,
there are several thousand buses running in Kunming, and it took time and
effort to notify everybody.

[004] The Kunming Bus
Explosions (07/22/2008) How shall the foreign media report an
emergency incident in a city in southwestern China? The fact is that the
foreign media have no presence in that city, and it will take some time to
dispatch a correspondent over. Meanwhile, the deadline is looming.
Clearly, the way to go is to comb the local Kunming media (such as shxb.net) as
well as Internet forums for stories/photos/videos, and then craft a cautiously
worded report. Here is Jum Yardley for the International
Herald Tribune:

Two public buses exploded during the Monday morning rush hour in the city
of Kunming, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others in what the
authorities described as deliberate attacks as China is tightening security
nationwide and warning of possible terrorist threats in advance of next
month's Olympic Games. The blasts struck city buses at 7:05 a.m. and
again at 8:10 a.m., state media reported. Public security officials in
Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in southwestern China, provided no
information about whether the explosions were coordinated, nor did the
authorities say whether they were the work of terrorist groups or
disgruntled individuals.

By Monday afternoon, the police were still searching for suspects.
Checkpoints were set up on highways, while the police were tightening
security at Kunming's airport and train terminal, according to the Web site
of the provincial public security bureau. A photograph of one bus posted
online showed shards of a shattered window spread across a street but also
suggested that the blast had not been powerful enough to inflict
catastrophic damage.

Two public buses exploded during the Monday morning rush hour in the city
of Kunming, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others in what the
authorities described as deliberate attacks as China is tightening security
nationwide and warning of possible terrorist threats in advance of next
month's Olympic Games. The blasts struck city buses at 7:05 a.m. and
again at 8:10 a.m., state media reported. Public security officials in
Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in southwestern China, provided no
information about whether the explosions were coordinated, nor did the
authorities say whether they were the work of terrorist groups or
disgruntled individuals.

By Monday afternoon, the police were still searching for suspects.
Checkpoints were set up on highways, while the police were tightening
security at Kunming's airport and train terminal, according to the Web site
of the provincial public security bureau. A photograph of one bus posted
online showed shards of a shattered window spread across a street but also
suggested that the blast had not been powerful enough to inflict
catastrophic damage.

... [some non-Kunming information is excised here]

In Kunming, the first bus blast killed Wang Dezhi, a 30-year-old woman,
while injuring 10 others, according to the provincial public security Web
site. The second explosion followed 65 minutes later on a different bus that
was following the same route. In this blast, a 26-year-old man, Chen Shifei,
died and four people were injured.

Witnesses on one bus told Chinese newspapers that a short man in a black
shirt and gray pants boarded the bus before the explosion and sat behind the
driver. After the bus stopped and then prepared to keep going, the man
suddenly jumped up and yelled for the driver to let him disembark, the
witnesses said.

Witnesses told a joint reporting team from the Yunnan Information Daily
and the Southern Newspaper Group that the man had left a black leather bag
on the bus. About 30 seconds later, the bus exploded. Witnesses on the
second bus told Chinese journalists they had also seen a black bag.
Wang was returning with her husband to celebrate the birthday of their
5-year-old daughter. Her husband suffered minor injuries in the explosion.

On Tuesday, the authorities in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province,
offered a reward of 100,000 yuan, or about $14,660, for information leading
to arrests in the case. Meanwhile, a leading Chinese newspaper, the Southern
Metropolis Daily, reported that some residents of Kunming received a cryptic
text message on the same morning as the explosions. “Listen up, ants,”
the text started, according to the newspaper. “If you receive this message,
please don’t take bus route 54, 64 or 84.” However, Kunming Vice Mayor
Du Min later discounted the report. “There was no such message,” Mr. Du
said, according to Xinhua, the official state news agency.

Watching this incident blown into a major news story it, it became a
little easier to sympathize with China's Olympic security ring of steel,
which includes surface to air missiles outside the main Olympic stadium,
100,000 anti-terrorist police to guard the Games, and half a million
volunteers watching neighborhoods. Beijing faces the usual Catch-22:
security measures are always demanded when they've failed and ridiculed when
they don't. Despite the tragedy of any sudden, violent death, this was
nonetheless a relatively minor incident. In China's case, it's reputation as
a country that blocks free speech, jails internet journalists, and human
rights activists has led to a tendency to see any security as over-kill, and
much mockery.

Which brings us to the question of who might have set the
explosions. Frankly, there's simply no information. Western media were quick
to draw a link - albeit cautiously - between the explosions and riots by
rubber farmers elsewhere in Yunnan province, in which two farmers were shot
dead by police two days earlier. The police came off badly, however; out of
the 54 people injured, 41 were police. But there is no proven connection.

The Foreign Ministry has denied any evidence of a link to the
Olympics or to terrorism, and Kunming police are offering a US$14,666
reward.

...

There is a bright spot in all this, which is that the official
Xinhua news agency of the explosions was surprisingly detailed. Given: a
crime was committed, and people died, there's nothing controversial and the
authorities want to be seen to be doing everything possible. But contrast
with the Shanghai explosion, official media reported the names and ages of
the victims (a 26-old man and a 30-year old woman) and eye-witness
interviews from passengers.

But for some who predicted a return
to tight constraints on the media after the temporary openness that followed
the Sichuan earth, the picture remains if not clear at least only moderately
hazy. A bit like the skies over Beijing, in fact.

"Frankly, there's simply no information." Well, that wouldn't stop
Apple Daily from publishing the standard editorial to cast blame on
the Chinese authorities and the system of government.

The serial bus explosions in Kunming exposed three serious problems.

First, the two explosions that occurred on the same bus line one hour
apart showed that the perpetrator was ruthless and the authorities were
useless. When the first explosion occurred, the authorities could have
used the electronic media and SMS to disseminate the information and
increased alertness and then the second explosion could have been averted.
It is regrettable that Kunming obviously does not have an emergency plan to
deal with bus explosions and therefore became helplessly lost.

Second, on the eve of the Beijing Olympics, the authorities claim that
security is being tightened up because of information about possible action
by the East Turkestan independence terrorists. As a result, Beijing is
living in fear because the security arrangements are disrupting the lives of
the civilians. When all the anti-terrorist forces and experts are
concentrated in Beijing, the other cities become vulnerable blind spots.
It is also reported that more than 3,000 electricity maintenance engineers
from 16 provinces have been summoned to Beijing, and that means local repair
work would be impaired in the event of breakdown or sabotage of the
electricity supply network.

Third, it is especially important to point out that China has been
suppressing dissident voices in the name of anti-terrorism. They are
violating human rights in the name of "maintaining stability" during the
Beijing Olympics. More and more citizens have nowhere to go with their
petitions and therefore civilian-police clashes are occurring more
frequently. Yang Jia slaughtered police officers in Shanghai, but he
is being regarded as a hero by some netizens. This is a clear
indication of popular dissatisfaction.

With this social background and regardless of the Beijing Olympics, some
people will take drastic measures to take revenge against the government and
even society as a whole, so that innocent people get hurt. To reduce
these cases, the local governments and officials need to raise their
awareness of human rights and the rule of law.

Meanwhile, there are two very disturbing photos (via
Tianya) that do not show in mainstream media. The first shows
part of the carcass of one of the deceased. The second shows the extent
to which a photojournalist is willing to go in order to film the medical
assistance given to one of the injured persons.

When this second photo was published, some netizens issued a "human flesh
search engine warrant" (see
Tianya) on the photojournalist responsible for taking this photo.
The reason: this photo may be real, but it is also socially irresponsible (and
personally irresponsible to the injured person).

(Washington
Post) In China, Fine Line Between Response and Overreaction.
By Jill Drew. July 23, 2008.

Some residents of the city of Kunming awoke Monday morning to find they
had received a cryptic text message on their cellphones: "The general
mobilization of ants," began the warning. "Hope citizens receiving this
message will not take bus lines 54, 64 and 84 tomorrow morning."

The message, presumably written Sunday night, didn't mean much to those
who received it, until two bombs exploded on a pair of buses during the
Monday morning commute, killing two people and injuring 14 others.

The goading note was a stark reminder that connecting all the dots
before an act of violence and providing an ironclad protection against it
is nearly impossible, experts said, despite all the steps China has taken
in recent months, including anti-terrorism drills, calls for citizen
vigilance against suspicious activity and high-profile arrests.

Du Min, Kunming's deputy mayor and director of the local public
security bureau, said Tuesday that police did not receive the text message
before the blasts, nor had anyone telephoned them about it. Police are now
investigating the message -- which was reported by the Web site of the
Yunnan Daily, a state-controlled newspaper -- along with several other
leads culled from interviews with surviving bus passengers.

No arrests have been made, and although police have drawn sketches of two
men potentially involved, Du declined at a news conference to name them as
suspects or release the drawings to the public. Instead, he sought to
broaden the net of information, offering the equivalent of $14,660 for clues
that lead to solving the case. He appealed especially to passengers who took
Route 54 buses between 6 and 8:30 a.m. on Monday, taxi drivers near the
sites, and shopkeepers and passersby.

Du said there was not enough evidence to say the bombings were the result
of terrorism or to link them to the upcoming Olympic Games, which will be
hosted in Beijing starting Aug. 8. China has warned that the threat of
terrorism is its biggest concern as it prepares for the Games, and in the
name of security, it has taken several steps to bring attention to possible
dangers.

Experts said that even if the bombings are found to be an act of
individual rage or revenge, the public response shows how difficult it can
be to strike a balance between prevention and overreaction.

For example, Du described his thinking after learning of the first
bombing at 7:10 a.m., about six minutes after the blast. He immediately sent
officers to the scene with orders to first rescue the injured, then control
the site, set up roadblocks around the area and contact the public health
department to make sure the best hospitals and doctors were available to
treat the wounded. He also made sure someone alerted the bus company. His
action plan, he told reporters, "proved totally correct."

Except he didn't anticipate the second blast, which came about an hour
later, leading some to ask why he did not order all the city buses to be
stopped and searched after the first bombing.

Li Wei, manager of the safety service department of the Kunming Bus
Group, said there are 2,900 public buses operating on 188 routes in Kunming.
To order a shutdown, he would need to get the permission of top government
leaders. "We have to go through all the procedures," Li said in an
interview. "First I will report to the leaders who are responsible for
transportation and wait for their orders."

Li said he alerted his direct boss as well as the deputy mayor in charge
of transportation after he got a call at 7:23 a.m. about the first
explosion. After the second explosion at 8:05 a.m., Li asked for permission
to stop running buses along that route, and his request was eventually
approved. The Route 54 buses were returned to operation around 8 p.m., after
safety checks had been conducted.

Zhang Jiadong, a security expert and assistant professor at the Center
for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said that if Li and Du
had ordered all the buses to stop operation after the first bombing, whoever
was behind the blasts might well have found another target.

Public transportation systems are particularly difficult to protect,
Zhang said. "The public expectation for the government response is above the
government's capabilities," he said.

Still, Chinese state-controlled media outlined the many steps Beijing has
taken to increase protection at its airports and railway and bus stations in
recent days to prepare for the Olympics.

Douglas Paal, director of the China program at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said the
Olympic Games always pose a formidable threat of terrorism. In China's case,
Paal said in an e-mail, "I think the counter-terror measures being taken are
also formidable, and perhaps insuperable except for individual acts of
self-sacrifice that are hard to prevent."

Paal said that given China's vigorous security, "foreign terror groups
should be viewed as less a worry than domestic sources, because the latter,
though fewer and less well-organized, have the advantage of blending in."

The term "picking up decent women" (泡良) has become a red-hot term on the
Chinese Internet, especially for certain human flesh search engines.
To be precise, "picking up decent women" means seducing women with decent
and respectable backgrounds. Those men who share this hobby describe
themselves as the "Pickup Artist Tribe (泡良族)."

The "Pickup Artist Tribe" are men who go after decent and respectable
women, seduce them to enter into a sexual relationship and dump them
afterwards without any remorse. Some married women may be feeling that
the aura of their spouses is gradually fading and they feel disengaged.
Meanwhile the husbands are too busy with their work and unaware of what was
happening ... in this way, the men become more indifferent, while the women
become more dissatisfied. This leaves the space for the handsome,
romantic and caring "pickup artists" to enter.

The "pickup artists" pretend to be "romantic" but they are actually only
interested in "scoring women." They leverage the social networking
features of the Internet and update the traditional romantic techniques.
The standard outcome is that the lives of the spouses are thrown into
turmoil, while the "pickup artists" walk away after satisfying their
appetites. The "pickup artists" can be said to be a "marriage virus in
the Internet era."

At some places, the "pickup artists" have set up organizations that
specialize in the art of seduction. According to reports, these
organizations have large numbers of members, they have regular meeting
places and they have a complete set of operational plans that are as
sophisticated and precise as any regular company departments.

When you enter the term (泡良) into Google, you get 488,000 results.
According to a survey, 12% of male netizens have picked up women before,
while another 35% wanted to but have not yet. The survey also showed
that among women who got divorced in the second half of 2006, 7 of them had
their marriages broken up due to an encounter with a "pickup artist tribe"
member; in the first half of 2007, the number has risen up to 22 out of a
100 ...

There are special Internet posts about the analysis of "Why do men want
to become pickup artists?" Supposedly, these men are naturally
lascivious and they regard it as glorious and pleasurable to conquer
respectable women. This is an assignment with a high degree of
difficulty that is comparable to assaulting a well-defended fortress, and
the reward is a sense of accomplishment. Some of these men are single
and use this as the safest way to satisfy their sexual needs. Other
men have had their own marital problems, and they are doing this to exact
revenge on others.

This is no doubt that such activities will be met with moral
condemnation. At the Paopao forum, a post about the "The truth about
seducing decent women" was based upon the earliest "pickup artist tribe" in
Nanjing city founded near the end of year 2003. The author emphasized
that he is not a tribe member, but he does not deny that his friends and
neighbors might be involved. The author defended the "pickup artist
tribe" with this clarification: "There has never been any unmarried member.
They are all divorcees. Basically, they have good jobs and incomes.
They apparently do not have any other moral flaws. Basically, they
don't use the Internet much, so they do not have any QQ groups. They
do not exchange or expose the private secrets of other people."

Some netizens would rather stop the pointless verbal abuses and reflect
instead on why such groups could emerge and exist. They also want to
reflect on how a inter-gender relationship could resist an intrusion, or
whether an attempted seduction is the essential way to test an emotional
relationship.

Former president Chen Shui-bian was kicked as he entered the Taipei
District Court yesterday to defend himself in a defamation lawsuit filed by
personnel connected to the purchase of Lafayette frigates in 1990. ... as
Chen entered the district court with security guards at 9:45am, a
65-year-old man named Su An-sheng managed to get close enough to kick Chen
in the hip.

Su was held by security guards and police officers arrested him and took
him to a police station for questioning, ... Su is a member of the
pro-unification Patriot Association. ... Su would be charged
with causing bodily harm if Chen filed a lawsuit against him. In the
meantime, the Taipei District Court has detained Su for three days for
violating the Social Order and Maintenance Act. Su can appeal the decision.

65-year-old Su An-sheng has a prior criminal record that included murder.
Last month, a Taiwan fishing boat sunk after a collision with a Japanese navy
ship. When Taiwan's representative to Japan Koh Se-kai returned to
Taiwan, Su pushed him in the street..

61.5%: It is wrong to kick anyone, so this action should be condemned
25.2%: That was a good kick on behalf of the aggrieved people
13.3%: Don't know/no opinion

[001] Fifty Cent Party
In Action (07/21/2008) (FEER)
China’s Guerrilla War for the Web. By David Bandurski. July 2008.

They have been called the
“Fifty Cent Party,” the “red vests” and the “red vanguard.” But China’s
growing armies of Web commentators—instigated, trained and financed by party
organizations—have just one mission: to safeguard the interests of the
Communist Party by infiltrating and policing a rapidly growing Chinese
Internet. They set out to neutralize undesirable public opinion by pushing
pro-Party views through chat rooms and Web forums, reporting dangerous
content to authorities.

By some estimates, these commentary teams now comprise as many as 280,000
members nationwide, and they show just how serious China’s leaders are about
the political challenges posed by the Web. More importantly, they offer
tangible clues about China’s next generation of information controls—what
President Hu Jintao last month called “a new pattern of public-opinion
guidance.”

But is there any example of the work of the "Fifty Cent Party"? Here
is one possible example given in A Reporter Visits Weng'an.
The background is this:

The Internet action created a different kind
of worry for the local officials. They organized to counterattack.
Although they were reacting passively, they nevertheless achieved decent
results.

Certain posts that counterattacked the rumors
began to appear on the Internet. These posts came mostly from the "Group
for policy discussion and law publicity" in Weng'an county. More than a
dozen teachers who were familiar with the Internet were selected and
transferred from the county schools and they acted systematically and
purposefully to dispel rumors and calm people down with comments on the
Internet.

The leader of this publicity team is the
Guizhou provincial party committee publicity department deputy director Zhou
Xiaoyun. According to the presentation of a local official, the
principal mission of this publicity team is to organize personnel to make
Internet comments, "and use the Guizhou media to affect national opinion."
Since the government website office was destroyed by arson, the workers worked
on the second floor of the Telecom Building. The dozen or so workers
from the relevant county departments and schools worked daily to collect
information and followed up with comments on inaccurate information.

The son of the Weng'an county deputy mayor and another youth raped and
killed a 15-year-old female middle school student named Li Shufei and
then tossed her body into the Ximen river aferwards. The police
detained the suspects for five hours and released them without charge.
The police said that the girl had committed suicide by leaping into the
river. The relatives of the girl went to complain to the police.
Instead of getting justice, the relatives were assaulted. An uncle of
the girl was beaten unconscious and eventually died. The uncle was a
teacher himself, and his students went to demonstrate down at the police
station. It seems as if the entire population of the county are
outside the public security bureau office building.

This Internet version contains information that was later shown to be
false: there was no involvement by a son of any Weng'an county deputy mayor;
there was no rape; the uncle did not die ... But that is not the point
here, because the more interesting is this later Internet post:

I am a Weng'an resident and I am one of the few people who know the
entire story from beginning to end. My information comes from
official sources, civilian sources and even people who have ulterior
motives.

At just past 8pm on June 21, Weng'an middle school Form 4 female student
Li Shufen and apprentices Liu Yantao and Chen Guangquan from a certain
aluminum alloy factory dined at a friend's place. At 11:30pm, the four went
down by the Simen river. Li Shufen sat on the bridge and said: "If I jump
down from here, will I die?" The other three people thought she was
joking and did not pay too much attention. She said: "If I don't die
after I jump, I will try to lead a good life afterwards." At that
time, Chen Guangquan was chatting with another girl and Liu Yantao was doing
push-ups. At 00:10pm June 22, there was the sound of a splash. The
three looked and saw that Li Shufen had jumped into the river. Liu
Yantao jumped in immediately after her, and then Chen Guangquan did so too.
But by the time that they got in, Li Shufen was nowhere to be seen.
Liu Yantao called aloud for help too. So Chen could only save Liu
first and then they called the police. Half an hour later, the fire
brigade retrieved the body of Li Shufen.

The Weng'an county medical doctor determined that Li Shufen had no signs
of physical trauma except for a mild injury on her forearm from brushing
with the sand in the bottom of the river. There were no signs of
sexual violence, so that there was no possibility of rape. The results
of the medical exam and the verdict of the public security bureau were
handed over to the parents of Li Shufen. At the time, the parents did
not object.

On June 24, through the insistence of other family
members, the parents took the body of Li Shufen in front of the public
security bureau and demanded that Liu Yantao and Chen Guangquan be arrested
for raping and killing Li Shufen. Since there was no factual basis,
the public security bureau officers refused. According to information,
the Li family wanted to extort money from the families of the three persons
(Liu Yantao, Chen Guangquan and the other female student) and this was the
excuse.

At 10am on June 25, Li Shufen's uncle led the family members to the
office of the Criminal Investigative Bureau on the third floor of the county
public security bureau building. The officer on duty was Zhang Ming,
who asked them: "What are you here for?" The uncle said: "Nothing.
Can't we just come in?" Zhang Ming said: "This is an office. If
you don't have business here, please leave." The uncle refused and Zhang
Ming attempted to push him out. But as soon as Zhang Ming touched the
uncle, the latter fell down on the floor and screamed: "The police is
beating me! Save me!" The aunt and another woman took off their
high-heel shoes and hit Zhang Ming with them. Zhang Ming considered
his own status and did not fight back. As a result, he suffered some
minor injuries. Other police officers heard the commotion and arrived
to restrain the two women. A video-taped interrogation of the three
individuals was made in the presence of an education department leader.
The uncle admitted that he and his family had assaulted Zhang Ming (there is a
signed statement as well as videotape as evidence).

At 16:30 on June 25, the uncle completed his testimony and left the
building.
Outside the public security bureau office, he was assaulted by the friends
of Liu Yantao and Chen Guangquan. (This was based upon the testimony of the
uncle and other family relatives in the form of signed statements and
videotapes). The uncle was admitted to the Weng'an County Hospital,
where he was diagnosed with a mild concussion.

At 6am on June 28, the uncle and other family members placed the body of
Li Shufen by the Simen river with big-character posters to appeal to the
central government. All those who wish to view the body was charged 5
RMB apiece, and almost 20,000 RMB was collected.

On the afternoon of June 28, the uncle and his sister (who was a teacher
at the Number Three Middle School in Weng'an) instigated the students (who
are as young as eight years old) who did not know the truth to march and
demonstrate in order to magnify the impact. But certain
criminal elements used the opportunity to gather almost 10,000 people
together. These criminal elements prepared rocks, bricks and gasoline
and went to the public security bureau building where they smashed and
burned all the police vehicles in front. They also set fire to the first floor
office and destroyed files and computers. Several dozen police
officers were injured, including one in critical condition. The first
three floors of the buildings were in flames. The rioters then turned
to attack the armed police, whose leader fired one shot in the air and
stopped the mob. The rioters then backed out of the public security
bureau building and turned their attention to the Weng'an county government
building, where they smashed all the cars and set fire to the courtyard.
Next the rioters turned their attention to the private cars parked in the
basement garage of the Civic Affairs Bureau. The rioters went over to
the Telecommunications and Postal Building and destroyed the communication
structures.

From start to end, none of the militia or armed police officers was seen
using violence.

I personally witnessed these incidents and I am willing to accept legal
responsibility for what I wrote. But I would like to say a few more things.

1. According to the uncle, Liu Yantao and Chen Guangquan are family
members of people working in the Weng'an county public security bureau and
that was why no full autopsy was conducted. (Later on,
one of the two was said to be the son of a deputy mayor of Weng'an county; this morning,
he had become the son of the provincial public security bureau director). The Guizhou
provincial county public security bureau has done its own investigation and
their findings are identical to the initial one. There is no
possibility of secret help to Liu and Chen, who were found to be farmer
children presently working as apprentices at an aluminum alloy factory.
Therefore, the facts are inconsistent with the allegations.

2. According to the uncle, Li Shufen was raped and then tossed into the
river. Three separate medical exams showed that the deceased had not
been sexually violated -- she was still a virgin. So how could she
have been gang-raped? Besides, nobody heard any cries of help or
sounds of struggle that night.

3. According to certain people with ulterior motives, the armed police
assaulted the masses. As for 23:00 on June 29, no Weng'an hospital has
come across a single person who was injured on June 28. Instead, the
hospitals have admitted more than 30 seriously injured police officers.
More than 100 other police officers had their wounds treated and bandaged
and then released. You can check out all the photos on the
Internet and there are no scenes of the police officers attacking the
rioters.

4. If this was just dissatisfaction with the police action, why were the
government, political consultative conference and telecommunications
buildings also set on fire? Why vandalize the private vehicles parked
in the underground garage?

5. You have all seen the photos on the Internet. These photos were
of high resolution and did not come from mobile camera phones. Many of
them were taken from above. How do these photos come about from a
suddenly breaking incident? Also, the incident took place at the
center of the county town. Where did the crowd find all the rocks and
bricks? Where did they get the gasoline and machetes? All of
this shows that this was a well-organized, pre-planned riot.

6. This incident is analogous to the 3.14 Tibet incident in that certain
people who did not know the truth were incited to "hit, smash and loot."
The uncle and the aunt could not have started something on this scale.
I cannot preclude the possibility that organized criminal elements are
involved in the planning and execution behind the scene.

The above is based upon the facts that I experienced personally. If
you disagree, please provide your counter-evidence. Or else you should
not mislead people with rumors to further the interests of those with
ulterior motives.

This Internet version is still not completely accurate, but it contains
certain ingredients of the eventual official version below. Please note
that the Internet version appeared before the press conference took place to
provide the official version.

According to the Guizhou provincial public security bureau information
office spokesperson, the Weng'an county public security bureau received a call
at 00:27 on June 22, 2008 that someone had jumped into the river. The
command center ordered the Yongyang town police station to send militia police
officers to the scene and also notified the fire department. The militia
police arrived at the scene and began to search for the body. Since it
was dark, it was around 3am that they finally fetched the body of the drowned
girl. The emergency medical crew determined that the girl was already
dead. The police then interrogated the three persons (Liu, Chen and
Wang) who made the call to 110 (the police telephone number). The police
learned that the drowned girl was named Li Shufen, who was born in July 1991
and is a Form 2 student at the Number 3 Middle School in Weng'an county.
The Yongyang police also inspected the scene, examined the body and conducted
the investigative work.

According to the investigation: At around 20:00 on June 21, Li Shufen and
her girlfriend Wang went out. They had dinner along with Wang's
boyfriend Chen and Chen's friend Liu. Afterwards, they strolled down to
the bridge over Simen river to chat. During the chat, Li Shufen suddenly
told Liu: "I might as well as kill myself by jumping into the river. But
if I don't die, I will try to lead a good life afterwards." Liu
immediately grabbed Li and stopped her from doing so. About 10 minutes
later, Chen said that he was leaving. Liu saw that Li had calmed down
and so he began to do push-ups. By the third one, Liu suddenly heard Li
said: "I'm going" and then she jumped into the river. Liu jumped in
after her immediately. Wang phoned Chen and then she began to cry for
help. Chen raced back to the riverside and jumped in to help search for
Li. Liu was exhausted, so Chen had to drag him back to shore first.
Wang and Liu called the police and notified Li's elder brother.

According to information, Chen is a resident of Yanmen brigade, Naxiang
village, Caotang town, Weng'an county. He is presently working at a
paper factory in Weng'an county. His parents are villagers of the Yanmen
brigade, Naxiang village, Caotang town, Weng'an county.

Liu comes from the same villager as Chen and is presently working at a
paper factory in Weng'an county. His parents are villagers of the Yanmen
brigade, Naxiang village, Caotang town, Weng'an county.

Wang is a Form 2 student at the Number 3 Middle School in Weng'an County.
Her parents are villagers of the Jiajiabo bridage, Jiajiabo village, Tianwen
town, Weng'an county.

According to the investigation conducted by the Weng'an public security
bureau, Li Shufen committed suicide by jumping into the river. This was
not a criminal case. They informed the family which refused to accept
the conclusion because they believed that this was a rape case. They
asked for a DNA analysis. On the afternoon of June 5, the southern
Guizhou public security bureau sent a medical examiner to conduct another
examination and the conclusion was that this was death by drowning. At
the time, the family accepted the conclusion. However, they indicated
that they would not bury the Li Shufen yet and they asked the public security
bureau to order Wang Jiao, Liu Yanchao and Chen Guangquan to pay restitution
to the amount of 500,000 RMB.

On June 26, the family of Li Shufen said that they agreed with the
mediation recommendation by the county workgroup and promised to sign an
agreement on June 28. On June 28 at 16:00, the family invited more than
300 people to march in the streets of Weng'an with banners. This was a
Saturday and there were many people in the street, some of whom began to
follow the procession. At 16:30, the marchers assembled in front of the
public security building. The police set up a police line, but the
marchers in front got emotionally excited. At the incitement of a small
number of people, some criminal elements threw water bottles, rocks and bricks
at the police. They broke through the wall of police officers and
charged into the first floor lobby, smashing the equipment, setting fire to
the vehicles and assaulting the police and firemen. They grabbed the
fire nozzles and they cut up the fire hoses. The firemen were forced to
withdraw. At about 20:00, the criminal elements hit, vandalized, looted
and burned the Weng'an county Party and government office buildings.
They even charged at the county detention center. The whole incident
took almost seven hours.

It does not seem possible for the Internet version to emerge autonomously
on its own. This person had access to certain inside information (such
as the testimonies of the three principals). Nevertheless, the person
was wrong on other aspects (such as the involvement of the uncle and aunt in
the procession) and also overstretched about the implications of the
high-resolution photographs taken from the rooftop across the street.

Is this any way to run the "Fifty Cent Party"? You can think about
the strategies and tactics. Should the "Fifth Cent Party" preview the
official version down to a dot? If they did that, the downside is that
this netizen (as well as this type of information) would be tainted forever
afterwards. Or should the "Fifty Cent Party" do the above -- present the
key aspects of the official version before its public release with some
embellishments that make it look like a grassroots forum post?